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Welcome to StephenBarkley.com. This is where I post all the stuff I've been thinking, praying, speaking, and writing about. Thanks for reading.
Reamde: A Novel © 2011 William Morrow: HarperCollinsPublishers 1044 pages There’s a curious juxtaposition here. Thrillers are, by nature, fast-pace adventure stories. Neal Stephenson’s latest thriller is a 1000+ page behemoth! Stephenson managed to insert deep characterization into his thrill ride in such a way that a 5 minute gun-fight can span 100 gripping pages. [...]
The Canterbury Tales © 2011 Bloomsbury 143 pages After thoroughly enjoying Chwast’s take on Dante, I was excited to snag a review copy of his Cantebury Tales. Unfortunately, expectations exceeded reality. Chwast’s simple graphic style seemed too simplistic here. That leaves you with the story to carry the book. While The Divine Comedy seemed suited [...]
Thomas Wingfold, Curate © 1876 George Routledge and Sons 666 pages Reading Thomas Winfold, Curate is like stepping into a time machine. You are transported from an era where sentences are short, plots unfold quickly, and characters are prized more for their role than their person, to a place where a 600 page novel wasn’t [...]
Timequake © 1997 Berkley Books 250 pages The premise is brilliant: Once upon a time the universe decided to rewind things ten years. Everyone has to relive the previous ten years over again. Some are put back in prison. Others are brought back to life. Everyone realizes rather quickly that they can’t do anything to [...]
Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation © 2010 Bloomsbury 128 pages I enjoyed every minute of Chwast’s take on Dante’s Divine Comedy. He managed to adapt and distill a masterpiece without exploiting or dumbing it down. At 128 pages, this whirlwind tour that takes you through a Canto or two per page. Even so, the [...]
On Tremendous Trifles ©1909 Hesperus © 2009 97 pages This book shares a lot in common with the Seinfeld—they’re both essentially works about nothing (at least nothing we’d consider worth considering). Tremendous Trifles is a collection of short essays on the things most of us wouldn’t pause to think twice about. In Chesterton’s able hands, [...]
The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession (P.S.) © 2005 Harper Perennial 298 pages I’m afraid my journey with Coelho is over. I was intrigued by The Alchemist, even though it smacked of neo-gnosticism. Veronica Decides to Die had such a twisted premise, I could overlook the philosophy. The Devil and Miss Prym, again, was such [...]
The Age of Fable © 1855 The Heritage Press (with additions © 1942) 369 pages Bulfinch’s Age of Fable is a classic reference work that lives up to its reputation. The book is packed with anecdotes of deities, monsters, and heroes, some of whom I had never heard of before. Thanks to the “Index of [...]
The Napoleon of Notting Hill © 1904 Wordsworth © 1996 129 pages Futurists fall into two categories: those who predict the collapse of civilization (Wells, Orwell, Atwood), and those who anticipate sunshine and lollipops (Kurzwiel, The Jetsons). Chesterton invented a new category. In 1904, he wrote a novel about a future eight decades later where [...]
Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim © 2009 Alfred A. Knopf 268 pages Angel Time is the story of an assassin who repents and teams up with an angel to do God’s work at various times in history. Rice envisions a number of books for this new character. Here a disclaimer before I continue: [...]
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